Grapevine City Council unanimously approved a resolution to authorize the purchase of multimedia services that will offer live streaming coverage of City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission meetings in its meeting March 4.

"I think its important for people to be able to see how their city government works and the more people see that, the more people appreciate what we have in this community and how we get it," Mayor William D. Tate said.

Swagit Productions, LLC will provide the services to video record the council and commission's meetings, as well as offer archiving for public, on-demand viewing for tablets, smartphones and computers. The city will own the content and download the meetings to DVD, maintained by the city secretary's office. The general public will not have access or the right for public download, City Secretary Jodi Brown said according to the contract highlighted in the meeting.

Co-founder and Director of Video Technology and Affairs Bryan Halley said the service allows for video indexing which organizes the video content in sections according to the agenda format. Users will be able to click on the section they are interested in watching.

Halley eased security concerns from the council by explaining the company's 100 percent customer satisfaction and its track record.

"We have never lost a government client since being in business since 2003 and that has never been a concern from those jurisdictions," Halley said.

There will be four cameras installed in the council chamber and two in the Planning and Zoning Commission's conference room.

Halley said the equipment will be installed no later than 45 days after receiving the deposit check.

The video equipment and fiber optic cables costs $57,760.85 and the annual amount for multimedia services is $16,200, generating a total of $73,960.85 which will be appropriated from the city's general fund, according to the contract.

Before the resolution was approved, Tate talked about the importance of the public's communication with city officials and how democracy is a two-way street.

"I hope that electronically, we don't lose that part of our ability to serve as public officials," Tate said. "We need to encourage people to still come to the meetings."